Tag: healthy eating

Ten days on my plan, and I am pretty happy with my results. I’m more than pretty happy; I’m actually extremely delighted by them and quite proud of myself. Before I get into my results, I do want to talk about some lessons that I have learned so far. Yes, I’ve learned some valuable lessons in just 10 days.

(Let me preface all of this by saying that while this is a 90-day challenge for myself; it is not a diet. I’m not going to do this challenge, be done, and then go back to eating and behaving like I was before I started. My goal is not only to lose weight and tone up, but to also set myself up with healthy lifestyle changes that will become lifelong habits. In a sense, I am training my body and, more importantly, my mind, to have a completely different relationship when it comes to the food I eat and the time I spend exercising.)

With that being said, here are some things that I have learned in the past 10 days.

I know it’s cliche: but if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. My first weekend on my plan was a rough one. I had a graduation barbecue and a child’s birthday party to attend, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday. Although I tried to plan my eating around them, I realized that I have to be ready for anything. Going to both parties, I had a plan for what I would eat and would not eat while there. What I didn’t count on in either case was what time we would be eating. I ended up being very hungry and, since I hadn’t thought to bring my own snacks, ended up devouring some pizza (3 slices) on Saturday and eating a couple of little bags of chips and a slushie at the Sunday party in order to sustain me until I got home and could find something else to eat (which also wasn’t the healthiest). This week I was better prepared for our faculty luncheon at Cheesecake Factory (no, I didn’t have a slice of cheesecake) and this weekend while enjoying dinner and movie with my bestie (shake for breakfast and lunch and my own snacks for the movie).

Not everyone will understand what you’re trying to do or think that you can do it. It’s not that they are trying to sabotage your goals, but they don’t understand why you won’t take one of the donuts in the break room (They’re free. You deserve them. It’s only one. You only live once) or why you don’t want to order the big burger with the fries at lunch and choose to eat your salad instead. But you can’t let that stop you. After a while, those same people will respect your resolve to stick to your plan, and they may become your biggest cheerleaders or even be persuaded to get on board and make some lifestyle changes of their own.

Don’t keep it around if the temptation is too strong. I am a nibbler or a snacker or whatever you want to call me. For example, in my desk drawer, I had a bag of candy that I used to reward my students. Day by day, I nibbled on a Laffy Taffy or two or some SweeTARTS here or there. On the last day of school, I allowed the students to raid the rest of the candy rather than bring it home with me. If I hadn’t had it there in the first place, I wouldn’t have been tempted to eat some every day. Same thing at home: if you’re not strong enough to say no, don’t keep it in the house.

Some things that have worked for me on my plan:

When I think I’m hungry, I drink some water first. I’ve read about this many times, but like I said before, I’m a “snacker.” I’m also a bored “snacker.” When I am bored or watching TV, all of a sudden I feel hungry or “snackish.” I’ve learned to combat that feeling by drinking water. If I’m still hungry after that, then I will find a healthy snack to eat. Which leads me to number 2!

Keep healthy snacks around. Keep them in the house, at your desk at work, and in your purse. My healthy go-to’s were string cheese, Herbalife’s Vanilla Almond Protein Bar (Amazing!), almonds, single serve kettle corn popcorn (100 calories), or some type of fruit. I’m working on adding other healthy snacks to the lineup this week.

Each day I had two Herbalife shakes: one for breakfast, one for dinner. I ate a healthy lunch, usually a salad with chicken and balsamic vinaigrette. Then I would have 2-3 healthy snacks during the day, plain water, as well as water with my Herbalife tea and aloe. I won’t lie. I still had my cup of coffee each morning. (I can’t help it. I love coffee!) And I had a couple of alcoholic drinks along the way, usually a vodka tonic.

As far as exercise, I worked out probably 3 days total. I love strength training that can count as cardio as well, so it was a lot of circuit training with weights and squats and lunges and other moves to get my heart racing. Now that summer is here and I am off from work, I may exercise a little more or not. But this is proof that it truly is 80% nutrition, 20% fitness, 100% mindset. Just changing my eating habits and mindset about eating helped me to get my results.

What were these results?

I lost 4.1 pounds over the first 10 days! Not to mention that I have more energy to tackle the day!

Isn’t that incredible?!

I cannot wait to see what next 10-day results will be. My goal is to lose a few more pounds and to start toning up!